The Hidden Chapter in Clara Oswald's Timeline
by E.FWriter
Summary: My name is Emma Waldron and this is the story of how my family met, how they came to be. This is the story of the time I travelled with the Doctor and this is the story of how it all ended. This is the story of the Timelords of Gallifrey. This is my story. Me. My name is Emma Waldron and this is my family. And this is how my family forgot. Forgot that I ever existed... *Whouffle!
1. The Impossible Child Pt 1

_Before we begin..._

Hello! My name is Elisabeth! I am a college filmmaker, but above all I am a storyteller. I do hope that you enjoy this story! Please follow and comment. I love all critique- good and bad. I must also mention that I run my own creative writing website and we invite all of you to join us! We create stories together and share ideas! It's a blast! So check us out at _tresinunum . freeforums . net_!

This is a novel I've been writing for a while. I've been a ' _Whovian_ ' since I was seven years old and I've been a writer for even LONGER! The novel below is a collection of random stories centred around an entire series of _Doctor Who_ adventures. While there is a central theme to the novel, small adventures will fill in much like how the series works itself. I WILL take ideas and suggestions! PM me or leave a comment and if at all possible I will make an attempt to incorporate it into the novel- stretch it out for as long as I can! xD

The characters centred in this novel are _The 11th Doctor_ , _Clara Oswald_ , and _Emma Waldron_ (an O.C.). I would like to take another moment of your time before you begin reading to give a full **synopsis** below:

 _'He took me to a planet I'd never seen before, but somehow felt so familiar. I walked those streets before. It's one of those strange moments in our lives where we remember things that never happened. Call it deja vu. Some say we're seeing into our future or senses something from a past life. But in no past life was I here. Except I was. Because there's me and... someone else. Some small girl with a trail of brunette hair braided down her shoulder and round chocolate eyes that smile bigger than her lips. But it's only a visions... something probing at the back of my brain and I swear that I remember... for a second I remember. I'm missing something. He's taken something from me. The Doctor. He's taken something important from me. But why? Why can't I remember who that girl is? And why is she everywhere I look? Everything I think? She's there. In the back of my mind. And suddenly... I remember her name. And her name is Emma.'_

Now, without further ado... I present to you: _The Hidden Chapter in Clara Oswald's Timeline_! Series One, Part One.

 **Disclaimer** : I do own any of the Whoverse characters nor do I have any association with the production.

* * *

 **SERIES ONE.**

 **PART ONE  
** **THE IMPOSSIBLE CHILD**

 _There are a thousand different possibilities to how this story may end. There are a thousand different universes and a thousand different stories all circulating around, creating more and more possibilities. Possibilities at all corners. I have possibilities. I have lots of possibilities! But those possibilities don't matter if I don't take them! I have to make a choice. So many choices... TOO many choices._

 _I could turn around. I could find the Doctor and make this all better. I could make it how it was. Or I could keep going straight and see where the road takes me. I could actually make it to school on time for once. Or what if I turned left and walked towards the cemetery? What would be waiting for me there? My mother, maybe._

 _The Doctor taught me to believe that all things are possible. And you know what? I believe it! I believe everything that mad, brilliant man tells me because... oh, well you know. The Doctor made me alive. Can I turn my back on that? Does he expect me to? No certainly not... I am alive. I am_ alive _. Doctor! I am alive and I need you. Don't make me choose. Make me stay. I want to stay. I don't want possibilities. I want_ one _possibility! And that possibility must be_ YOU.

x x x

The Doctor was spinning around in circles. His coat flaring around him like a dark fog, swirling and swirling wildly through the crowded streets. Bubble men of blue and horned creatures of hornet yellow splashed the road with vibrant madness. _Anicarthia_ , the Doctor called it. Pretty, it was. Golden in colour and fiery in character. He called it a haven. Haven for people and creatures whose planets have all been destroyed. Clara trailed behind him, her mind somewhere amongst the stars. There were so many stars even in the sunlight here. There was a dreadful sense of familiarities all around her. These streets. These people. These sunlit stars. It was so very familiar. So very strange.

She was propelled forwards towards the chaos of the city after the Doctor. He was twisting between shades under handles of tapestries plastered over roofs and rickety poles. His form disappeared between two bricked walls slathered in green vinery. Clara found herself in some sort of cavern of colourful flags. The Doctor was mumbling madly to himself. She wondered if he noticed himself talking. He rambled like a madman. Madman in a blue box. Her madman in a blue box.

"Doctor! Where are we goin'?"

He was in the clouds. Stopping only once to straighten his bowtie in a shattered mirror. He had been distracted lately, she noticed. He talked to her less. He took her to the suns of planets and avoided the horrors- taking away some of the adventure in the process. It was very unlike him. He was keeping something from her. He was… sad, sadder than she had seen him before. She could just tell. It was in his eyes.

Suddenly the Doctor stopped. He was staring down an alleyway and his back was arched back from approach. "Doctor?" Clara crouched forward, cautious and curious, all the while staring at the walls that the Doctor faced towards. "What is it?"

The madman tipped backwards. "Ah. Right. Well… Seems like I've got some unfinished business here. Thought I popped off farther in the future, but… TARDIS. Now!"

He turned then on his heels. He ran right past Clara, hitching her hand in his in one swift motion. "Doctor! What is it?" She repeated herself, stumbling along the carved path weakly as her boots dragged in the ricks and hicks of the cobble. The Doctor, however, was not listening. Or if he was he was not going to answer. Chaos rang out from above them and tapestries of wild colours fell behind their backs and in front of their path. Violent lights of orange and green shaved the air like razors, missing their heads… barely. Slices of weaponised colour pried apart shops and stops along their paths, most definitely aimed at the fleeing Doctor and his companion.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

The Doctor slid under a fallen pavilion, releasing his companion's grip in the process. Without the support of her quirky Timelord, Clara stumbled to the ground, catching herself only with her palms and knees. The mud splashed up onto her skirts.

"Clara!" That wasn't the Doctor. It was small. Feminine. A child?

Clara Oswald dared to turn her head towards the sound, but she was snatched up by the Doctor in a second. "What are you doin' down there on the ground for? C'mon! Time to Run!" On their feet, again, the Doctor and Clara scrambled into the TARDIS with seconds to spare. She spun until her palms slammed against the console and her madman was flipping switches and popping buttons. Hissing and wheezing, the blue box evaporated into the void and the air smoothed beneath them.

"Doctor!"

Mumbling to himself again, the Doctor was talking to his TARDIS. "Okay! Next stop- the Red Galaxies. You're gonna love it there. Skies of Green and grass of blue- it'll really-"

"Doctor! Are you gonna tell me what the hell that was back there?" Clara demanded. Her lungs working extra hard to catch her breath. "What did you do?" Her feet stomping against the platform. The TARDIS rumbled, displeased.

"Me? I didn't-" He stopped then. His face changed so suddenly that it startled his companion. "It's a long story."

"That's never stopped you before."

He went quiet. He didn't usually do that either. The Doctor always had stories to tell. There were hardly any secrets between them. _Right_? That was the thing about travelling with the Doctor. No matter how well you thought you knew him... you'd never know everything. Clara's barely scratched the surface and she's stepped into his timeline. "Doctor?"

His big sad eyes. The Doctor's big sad eyes stared down at his console. Lost in thought. His hands fondled something buried his coat pocket. And still he refused to answer. "Story for another time. Trust me."

Clara shut her mouth. Now was not the time. "The Red Galaxies sound brilliant." Her mouth formed a smile, a frown disguised as a smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Let me change first, though, yeah?" The mud had started to cake over the fabric of her skirt.

Clara's room was located on the left in the first corridor to the right. The TARDIS was a labyrinth of corridors and rooms with various purposes or no purposes at all. There was an entire room dedicated to a plastic ball pit and another completely submerged in purple gelatine. But there were other rooms filled with books and locked with a TimeLord's secrets. Across from Clara's room was a sealed vault, which she never bothered to even look at for the Doctor was very private about that room. Perhaps it was his bedroom? She had never seen him sleep nor did she think he needed to, but he must, mustn't he?

Her bedroom was hidden behind a solid white door, a wooden landmark in an otherwise mechanic landscape. Behind her wooden privacy was a generously proportioned bed laced with a handknit quilt from her Gran and two hardly-used pillows of plain white. There was a plain dresser and a closet, opened and scattered about her floor. She wished she was better at cleaning this place, but there was always some sort of distraction.

Clara started to slip from her clothing. She had copious arrangements of ensembles to cover her; it was a necessity when travelling so long with the Doctor. With her old clothes discarded and a new ensemble assembled to her frame, Clara started to regain some control of her disheveled hair, now matted and scattered from it's part. She followed the cleared path to her dresser, which doubled as a vanity, and started to comb through the fine strands of her brunette locks.

It was at that very moment that Clara looked into the mirror and a familiar voice travelled across her memory caverns. _"You're supposed to be the control freak. How come I'm the one bothered by this room, then?"_ Clara looked into the corner of her mirror and for a split second there she saw the face of a girl she thought she knew. She turned her head to find the space around her completely abandoned. There was no voice. There was no one there.

When Clara's gaze returned to the mirror her cheeks were stained with tears. Her fingers brushed the bump of her cheek and the wet clinging to her skin attracted to the lines in her fingers. Clara's smile seemed to evaporate into the thick of space and she was lost. What was this? Where did these come from? Tears.

Clara returned and the Doctor had not changed. He was still pattering about the control room. He moved around the room like a busy bird. He caught her immediately; but refused to notice the changes in her posterior. He didn't always notice those little things. He didn't always recognise emotions. Or maybe he did and chose to walk over it. It was hard to tell behind those old, sad eyes.

"Red Galaxies, then?" Clara hopped down the steps with a clicking following her every move until she made it to the console.

The Doctor looked up for only a second, pushed a button, and looked back at the console- for a second. The next second he was looking back at her. He noticed. He noticed her cheeks. Her eyes. Something had given it away. "Why are you crying?"

The Doctor stepped closer, his brow narrowed in examination. _Are_. He said _'are'_ not _'were'_. Clara shook her head, confused herself, until she felt another tear hit her cheek. "I don't-" Another smacked against her cheek. "I don't know."

The Timelord swiped his index finger under her eye and placed the salty tear upon his tongue. Smacking his lips in an exaggerated show of taste. "Old. Very old." His eyes were so dark, staring at her. "Excuse me." The Doctor brushed past her in such a blur that Clara wasn't even aware of the change. The air hit her cheeks and ceased to stir around her. Clara was left alone in the console room and the Doctor had disappeared behind one of the corridors.

"Doctor?" Her voice was quiet. He was out of sight and out of earshot. So, Clara picked up her feet and followed his path into one of the corridors.

The Doctor disappeared between the confines of one of the rooms well before Clara had faced the corridor. The TARDIS lights flickered with a wheeze and a hum and the sound of the controls rumbled beneath her feet. She started down the corridor with slow intent, glancing from room to room until flags of dark purple shot past her vision. The Doctor was rummaging through something. Bottles or boxes. It was an entire room dedicated to vaults of vacuous bottles, glass boxes, and a singular metal vault bolted into the wall at the back of the florescent room.

"Doctor?"

He turned then, facing her, and then charging her with his finger at the ready. Nose to nose, the Doctor thumped his finger against the centre of her forehead. "Ow!" She protested, but he was lost. The Doctor's voice chimed across the echoed corridor as his mind raced from thought to thought. He was speaking, but Clara wasn't hearing a word.

"Doctor, what are you talkin' about?"

His vocals were running on about something. Time and faults and memories. "Don't use the Retinentia-The Retinentia always finds fault-Never finishes the job- always thinks-always changes-"

"Doctor, what are you on about?"

"The Retinentia. They left something-" His finger pressed against her forehead again. "there."

Clara's gaze followed his very movements back to the glass vaults. He tumbled over a few clinking bottles and Clara looked off at the shelves of bottles next to her person. It wasn't what she expected- there were names on the bottles. Names of the dead, maybe? She reached for one labelled _Donna Noble_.

"Don't-"

Startled to be reprimanded in the middle of his ramble, Clara replaced the empty space with the bottle again.

"A single crack could- it could destroy- don't touch anything. They're very delicate."

"Okay."

Silence poured over the vaulted room and within moments the Doctor was back on his rampage until his fists clasped around a silver locket among the bottles of clear. Not until then did Clara make another motion forwards. Her person was close enough to hear the breath of the Doctor humming through her auditoriums. "There's a crack."

"A crack?"

The Doctor's hand unfolded before her. The locket appeared to be engraved with gibberish designs. Not of origin she would recognise. There on the edge of the locket was a slender crack down the front of the circular structure. The crack interfered with the opening and thus...

"The crack." The Doctor started. His palm graced the bones of her cheek and his finger swiped another tear that had fallen unknown. "It's seeping through. What can you see?"

She shook her head, suddenly scared. "Nothing. I can't see anything."

His hazel orbs studied her for a moment, waggling back and forth in a hurried manner. His brow collapsing over his gaze, the Doctor's mien illustrated confusion and curiosity. He was staring now, not into her eyes, but into her mind. And just when he had her distracted, he plucked a hair from her scalp, encouraging a little yelp from her in reaction. "Oi!"

"This one. It's an entire year older than the others."

"What? How can one strand of hair be older? It's just hair!"

The Doctor smiled, that big goofy smile that he got when he found something new. "It's not just your hair. It's your tears. Your tears. They're old. There's a crack in your mind. A crack in your locket and it's bleeding through-"

"Hold on. _My_ locket?"

"Right. You've forgotten." His tone formed more of a question than a statement. "The memory is so powerful that it's braving cracks in it's prison."

"Doctor, what are you talking about?"

The Doctor froze. "I am so so sorry, Clara. I can't fix this." He wasn't talking, but he wasn't saying anything. _Typical_.

"Fix what?"

"Your memories."

x x x

Hush. There's voice coming from inside the bedroom. It's whispering, but it can still be heard. It's coming from the bedroom- my bedroom. I had to investigate. Creeping towards the door, I hopped from one board to the next until I was standing nose-to-nose with the wooden door. The whispering stopped. But there's still noise coming from the room. Breathing. I can hear them breathing.

I knocked. There was no answer. Of course there was no answer. The door squealed and suddenly I was inside. The room was dark and bitter with a damp cold. Cold filled the space like a wave. The wind broke through the window and the shutters shattered against the wall. There was a wicked storm brewing outside and this ramshackle hatch wasn't enough to hold it back. I was forced backward, crunching the floorboards under my feet and revealing my position. Whatever was lurking in the dark knew I was there now if it didn't before. I was vulnerable.

Scratching came from under the bed. My heart started to beat against my chest so hard that I thought it might burst from my skin. I scanned the room. It was definitely coming from under the bed. "I know you're there." I huffed, fearful in the slightest. How many hid there?

My hands pushed against the floorboards until my chest was pressed against the surface and my cheeks cooled against the wood. Once at eye level I was able to peek under the bed and through the duvet to see the smile staring back at me, white and sinister. Then a _thump_! I was smashed against the floorboards and my skin puffed around me with the horrible pressure that met with my spine. I think I screamed, but all sound went numb…

Laughter followed. Horrible, evil laughter.

"Ouch!" Pushing the monstrous figure from my back, I rolled up onto my bum and glared down at my foster sisters with foul contempt. "That hurt! If you're going to play hide n' seek 'least play it fair."

"C'mon, Emma. I's only fun if you break the rules." Ronnie was older than me. She's just turned eleven while Olivia was pushing thirteen. She'd be moved from our home soon. That's how it was when you turned to a teen. You moved where other teens were.

"That still hurt…" My arms crossed across my chest as if by extinct. They often teased me for it. It was a gesture I participated in often.

 _Clap_! _Clap_! There it was. The sound of our caretaker clammering up the stairs. It was enough to drive all three of us into bed. Olivia was in more trouble than we. She wasn't even in her own bedroom. "You girls are causing a racket up here." Ms. Kathy was a plump old woman. Sweet as strawberries usually, but mean as a bat when we broke the house rules. Luckily, there weren't too many of those.

With our hands around the duvet corners we threw ourselves under the darkness and waited. Whispering gigglings and biting our tongues. Olivia hushed us, but that only made us want to laugh more.

"Olivia." Ms. Kathy was there. "To bed. Emma in your own bed. C'mon now. You've got school in the mornin'."

Olivia climbed out from the sheets immediately and scampered past Ms. Kathy to her own bedroom in a breathing hurry. Soon to follow the closing of the bedroom door and Ronnie and I were left alone. Guess we should listen. It was my first day of school tomorrow in London. I had spent all summer here. Now it was time for me to be part of the routine.

x x x

"Keep up, Emma!" Ronnie was far ahead of me. She much more excited for school than I was. I didn't like starting over. I never did.

"I'm comin'," But I wasn't. I was shuffling behind, kicking my feet and staring at the pavement as if it would actually make a difference. I was going to school. No other way around it.

Schools in London were not very different than those in Blackpool. I thought they'd be different because it's London, but it was the same. Ronnie walked in with me, but she disappeared instantly when she found her friends. This was her last year in primary school. If I stayed another year here in Ms. Kathy's house I'd be walking to this school alone.

"Your classroom is right down there." Ronnie pointed down the hallway. There were at least six rooms down that corridor. How did I know which was mine? "I'm in the other hallway. I see you out in the courtyard after school, yeah?"

I nodded. I could follow instructions. Didn't mean I would. Ronnie left me after that and I was wandering down the hallway, looking for the room with my number on it. I did not like change. I should've been used to it at this point, but that didn't make it any easier. It made it harder, actually.

"C'mon. Hurry in. Take your seats."

Laughter filled the room for a moment until it all settled and the sound of chairs scraping across the floor replaced the chatter and all the human rumble. I slipped my backpack from my shoulders and swung it around my assigned seat, located towards the back of the classroom. There was my name taped on the corner of the desk: Emma W.

The woman had her back turned. She wore dark leggings and short, _short_ skirt. The sweater she wore was thin, hugging around her torso like a band. Hair short, cut perfectly at the bottom and flattened against her head. And, she was very, very little. I think I could match her height if I stood on my toes. "Good morning, class. You may call me…" Her hand fell from the board and her gaze turned towards us. I found her big, round, brown eyes and she smiled. "Miss Oswald."

* * *

Next Time on _Doctor Who_...

There's something coming. It's hiding in the shadows like a monster, taking children from their beds, and stalking their schools... and it all starts here.

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked me.

"Emma. Emma Waldron."

"Hello, Emma Waldron. I'm the Doctor. Now... RUN!"

It's following us. It's clinging to the walls and scratching the surface of the universe all to get to the Doctor. That strange, funny madman with a bowtie. He said he can save us. He said he can save us all, but it's like the children... the beast under the bed. It's real and it's here in London.


	2. The Impossible Child Pt 2

You're back! I'm quite honoured... Part One may not have been much, but I hope that it's captured your interest enough to look a bit further. Remember, that I will accept requests or suggestions. There are separate adventures contained in this story thus it's OPEN to just about anything!

Now without further ado... I present to you: _The Hidden Chapter in Clara Oswald's Timeline_! Series One, Part Two.

 **Disclaimer** : I do own any of the Whoverse characters nor do I have any association with the production.

* * *

 **PART TWO  
** **THE IMPOSSIBLE CHILD**

When the bell ruptured across the halls, the entire class stood to their feet like an army responding to their commander. Packing their things before Miss Oswald had even given the homework. She didn't, by the way. Not that I really minded. I don't think I was actually going to do my homework, anyways. I was sort of looking forward to going home and sulking in my bedroom until the lights went out.

But I didn't leave with the others. I didn't start packing my things until after everyone else had started to towards the door. Miss Oswald was at the front of the classroom wiping down the board and shuffling papers into her teacher's purse or briefcase or whatever it was called. She stopped when she saw me. I was the last one left. Of course she noticed that one kid who actually hung out in class after the bell rang.

"What are you still doing in here?" Her voice was sweet and soft like I imagine my mother's might've been. "Shouldn't you be outside with the other kids?"

I wasn't really sure how to talk to her so I just shrugged my shoulders and frowned a bit. She returned that frown, though, hers was more sympathetic. "Well. It's okay to be nervous on your first day. This is my first day, too. Bit nervous myself."

Again. I wasn't sure how to respond. Miss Oswald seemed so kind and amicable. I wanted her to like me and I wasn't sure she would if she knew more about me so I kept my mouth shut because keeping quiet and keeping secrets is the safest thing to do.

"I'll walk you out, if you like?" Miss Oswald had some of the most spectacularly large eyes. It gave her the look of innocence like that of a baby doe.

I shook my head. I don't know why I did that because I would've liked nothing more to than have Miss Oswald walk me out, but she intimidated me. Even if she was almost my height. There was something almost... otherworldly? about her. "I have to find my foster sister, but thank you."

I ran out after that without so much as a goodbye, just a nervous hop and leap out the door. Miss Oswald was sure to label me as the class psychopath, after that reaction.

I was in such a hurry that I hadn't even noticed I was halfway down the hall and almost out the door when I clashed with a stick figure in a bowtie. He knocked me off to the side. My loafers screeched across the cement and a buzzing filled my ears.

"Oi. What are you doing running around like a belareptor after a takatorn feast?"

Oh boy. The school's hired a madman. "A what?"

"Oh never mind." His hands waved about the air like he was swatting an invisible insect. "Have you seen a brown-haired girl about this high?" He held his hand below his chest. "Goes by Clara Oswald."

"She's in her classroom."

"Ah right. Yes, well, that is to be expected." That was it. He rambled to himself a bit and then he started off back down the hall.

I turned to find him sauntering away. "What do you want with Miss Oswald?" I found myself asking rather blazingly and unexpected.

He spun on his heels and faced him with a wickedly suggestive grin. He was gone then, flashing across the hallway in an instant until he was disappeared behind a classroom, presumably Miss Oswald's. What did he have to do with the new teacher? That big-chinned man with a bowtie and her pretty new primary school teacher. Together?

Didn't matter now. I was off. Back to my house in London with my foster sisters and the bumbling Ms. Kathy.

x x x

It always felt like time moved very fast after school. It was dark almost instantly. We had eaten dinner and Olivia and Ronnie were at the kitchen table doing their homework together. After presenting my schoolwork to Ms. Kathy she allowed me to go upstairs to my room for the remainder of the night. All by myself.

I was sitting on my bed that night with a pencil in my hands. I liked to draw. I made a lot of drawings, but most ended up in the bins. Dreams. I liked to envision my dreams. This one was a common dream of mine: of a mother and a father and a house and life all of my own. I imagined my mother to look a lot like me: light brown hair, hazel irises... but I imagined that my attitude was more like my father's. I don't know why. It's just how I thought. How I liked to think.

It was then when I was sitting on my bed that I heard a curious noise came from outside my window. Peculiar because it sounded very similar to the buzzing I had heard in the halls earlier. Promptly, I laid down my pencil and scrambled off the corner of the bed to investigate. The night had grown dark and the window showed nothing except the black that blanketed outside. Shrugging it off, I turned back to my bed when there it was again followed by an audible _ding_ at the end. I lifted the window from the sill and poked my head out into the night to look over the house's exterior. There was nothing. Not even wind.

"Hello?"

There was no answer. I went back to my bed, bent over the coloured sheet of paper and continued my artistry when only seconds later there was a rumble coming from downstairs. I looked up for just a moment. There was a strange blue light coming from underneath the doorway and while it perplexed me, I decided not to budge from my bed. I figured it was Olivia or Ronnie playing in the hall, with what I had no idea. But, then, there was another rumble and a loud _thwack_ that upset the balance of my door for the hinges gave way and the door floated open.

"Oi! What are you two doing out there?"

Again. There was no answer.

"Olivia?" I barked. No answer. "Ronnie?" Silence responded. "C'mon, this isn't funny! Stop it, the both of you!"

No voices followed, only silence.

Frustrated, I slid from the mattress and went to meet those two at the door. Except no one was out there. The hall was dark and... empty. I sighed and shut the door. Those two were always playing tricks on me. Well, tonight was not the night. They'd have to play their games somewhere else because they weren't getting anything out of me, I was sure of it. When I started to return to my bed, the door- it opened again, floated open so gently that it was as if the wind nudged it. Just a gentle push.

I turned around, stomping my feet back to the door to slam it shut. "If you two don't knock it off-"

No one was there.

"Okay. Fine!" My heart was palpable in my chest. "Be children! You can't scare me!" Were they really trying to frighten me? Because it was starting to work.

I shut the door for the last time and upon returning to my bed there was a sudden shatter and a _bang_ as the shutters broke open and the wind flooded into the room in a violent breeze. Then came the noise. The most horrible noise. Claws under the bed. I was paralysed then. My legs crouched under my body and my hands gripping the duvet under me. I stared straight because I couldn't move my gaze downward. There was scratching under my bed. What could possibly be making that scratching sound?

"Olivia! Ronnie!" Tears started to bubble and my cheeks puffed as I held in the last breath I took. "Ms. Kathy!"

No one came. The house fell silent. It was all on me now. So, I released my grip and pried my eyes from the wall and dared to peak over the edge of the bed. I had to look farther, though, because there was nothing visible from my position. I pulled back the covers and lowered my head to the wooden floors. I saw no shape. I saw no form. Just a dazzling blue light no larger than a pin, hovering there.

It breezed past my head and I followed it with my gaze until it was hovering at the height of my eyes. "How extraordinary..." I offered the compliment, but the moment my mouth utter a sound the blue light emitted a scratching screech that was accompanied with it's expansion. It grew and grew until it was no longer a speck of light, but a monstrous creature in the shape of a two-legged dog with wings. It had no eyes, only black sockets, and a underbite of large carnivorous teeth. It had no hair or fur, but a naked skin of grey and it's bones protruded from it's shoulders like spikes.

I sat there frozen in my place and then, finally, I found the voice to scream. It screeched after me and made a lunge towards my bed, but was prevented when a overcoat with feet leaped between us. A green light was emitted towards the demon and a humming followed. The sound drove the creature into a fury where it clenched it's head and shook violently until it collapsed on the ground in a dangerous curdle.

"Stop it!" I found myself crying. "Stop it! You're hurting it!"

The overcoat turned to me, released the green light. It was him! The man that I had saw earlier in the hall with the big sad eyes and the pointed chin. He saw me and he frowned immediately. The sound stopped and the beast started to rise again.

"Quickly now!" He didn't hesitate to snatch my hand in his and drag me from the room, leaping over the cowering beast in the departure. Once outside the room, the man turned back to the door, unveiling his metal wand and shined that green light onto the lock.

"What good is that going to do?" I huffed, still completely dazed.

"Nothing. Just by us some time."

"Time? Time for what?" I begged. "And where are Ronnie and Olivia? And Ms. Kathy?"

He spun around to me. His brow lowered in disbelief as if he'd never heard of anyone called 'Ms. Kathy' before. "Ms. Who?"

"Ms. Kathy." I answered so as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Ah. Right, Well..." He started. "Somewhere in another dimension, I think. Haven't sorted that part out yet."

"A what?" But he was already on his way. "You're telling me that they're in another dimension? That's not possible!"

He turned then rather suddenly. He was such a lengthy man. Peering down at me like he was studying me, he asked: "And why not?"

My face fell. "Well..." And then I found myself questioning the whole of reality. Based on what I had just seen. "Because those are just for stories. They're not real."

He leaned back, thinking then. "Yes. You're absolutely right. They're just stories." Then he was off again. His feet clambered down the stairs so harshly that I almost missed the beating behind my back. The beast was awake and breaking for an escape. And I was alone...

I ducked off after him in a hurry. "Hold on!" I snapped. "You can't just leave that thing here! Where are you going?"

"To the TARDIS. I need some supplies."

"The what?"

"You really can't grasp the human language, can you?" He acted as if I should know these words.

We were still walking. Walking all the way out into the front of the house and onto the street. "I'm not entirely sure you're speaking as a human."

He froze, spun around with his wand at the ready. He bent his neck to loom over me. "What makes you say that?"

I shrugged. "You act like this is normal."

He looked up. Thought for a moment and then nodded. "Quite right." He was moving again. Quicker this time. I could hear something moving behind us.

"What's a TARDIS?"

"It's a stolen time machine."

"You stole a time machine? From where?"

"From Gallifrey."

"Is that another planet?"

"Yes." He looked back at me. Stopped. "Is that okay?"

I didn't think. "Yes."

"Good." He continued walking and then slowly came to a stop somewhere at the end of the street. He looked forwards and studied the night sky in the distance. He made no sudden motion. He turned to me, again, and lowered his torso to meet me halfway. He was very tall. "What's your name?"

"Emma." I said timidly. "Emma Waldron."

"Hello, Emma Waldron. I'm the Doctor. Now..." His gaze rose above my head and I swear for a glimmering second his mouth was curling into a mischievous smile. "RUN!"

It was then that I finally turned around to see the beast had transformed into a speck of blue and was now heading this way! It dawned on me, then, that as a blue speck there couldn't be much it could do without transforming again into that horrid monster I saw before in my bedroom, but the man identified as ' _the_ Doctor' seemed to think otherwise. He seemed much more educated that I was in these matters so I obliged. He clenched his large fist around my little hands and half-dragged me through the woods.

It's following us. It's clinging to the walls of the universe and scratching the surface of the world all to get to the Doctor. This strange, funny man with a bowtie, who I trusted irrevocably to guide me out of this.

Everything whizzed by us in flashes of dark greens and browns. Crackling and breaking under us, the earth was echoing our positions in the woods. Running and Running. Until we weren't running anymore. I was thrown into a silver light, spun around a metal platform and caught on a lighted control panel that looked like it belonged on the SYFY network.

"Now!"

His voice was loud and zealous. He was too excited by all of this, but then... so was I, but also terrified and a bit nervous. He wasn't, though.

"We pop you back off at the school- and bod-da-bing-ba-da-"

"Wait!" I shouted, circling around the console to find him pushing buttons and pulling levers. "The school? You have to take me home! I have to find-"

"Yes. Yes." He just waved me passed. "We'll get you there, but first..." He looked at me sort of funny with a grin on his face and eyes so wide that they looked like they might pop from their sockets. He pulled a handle that released a whiz that bounced off the walls and reverberated through the skies around us.

"What it doing?"

" _She_ ," he corrected, "is taking us away."

"How is _she_ going to do that?" I asked sourly. "Thought you said you had stolen time machine? Are you going to throw us out of this time zone?"

The Doctor's head titled over the pillar that rose from the floor to the height of the circular structure. There was a disc bubbling up and down the structure like a pulse through a heart. "TARDIS. It stands for _T_ ime and _R_ elative _D_ imension in _S_ pace. Both time machine and ship... to anywhere in the universe at any time."

I just walked into a spaceship with a madman. "Okay."

"Now. Emma Waldron. Time to put that thing back in it's own dimension."

The Doctor came circling back towards me and started off towards the double doors. "Oi!" I shouted after him just as the doors swung open. "You'll let that thing in-" But he wasn't listening. I ran after him in a hurry to close those doors, but when I got there and saw the light on the other side I realised that we were no longer in the woods by my house, but by the courtyard of my school.

"Hold on..." I stumbled out from the enclosure and onto the pavement after the impeccably dressed bowtie-wearing gentlemen. "How did we get here?" I asked, trailing after him with a skip in my step.

"Were you not listening to anything I was saying? It's a spaceship!"

"We're not in space."

He stopped. Haunched his shoulders over and stalked towards me with _that_ look that parents gave you when you're being smart. Like he wanted to whack me over the head for misstepping or not following his instruction. "You're impossible..." He mumbled.

"So I've been told." I muttered back, crossing my arms then over my chest and huffing proudly.

He paused for a moment and like he had throughout the entirely of their conversation, the Doctor returned to stalking around the scenery with his shoulders loomed over his chest and his head pointed outward, leading him to his destination.

"What are we doing at my school?" I asked finally; a question I should have perhaps asked when we first landed.

"Here!" He beamed. "Here is where it all started." He waved his wand about the yard.

"What's that, then?" I asked. "That thing that you're waving about like a Harry Potter wand?"

"It's a sonic screwdriver."

"It looks more like a wand than a screwdriver."

"Yes. Suppose it does..." He sounded so distracted all the time. Like he was thinking about a thousand different things at once, all while speaking to me and speaking to himself and speaking to the earth. He was speaking, but he was never saying anything. He was just lost in his own strange, mad mind.

"What does it do... your _sonic screwdriver_? Can it find my foster sisters?"

"It can." He looked back at me, a slight shine under his shadow. "It will." He spoke in correction to himself. "Foster sisters?" He asked, suddenly. It was as if he was surprised to hear it... for the second time that night.

"Yeah."

"This, Ms. Kathy you spoke of..." He was thoughtful. Quiet, like he wasn't really aware of what he was saying. "She your caretaker?"

I nodded.

"She nice?"

I nodded again.

"Good. Very good." He blinked and nodded and shook away from the thoughts. He started towards the school again in one solid motion, pushed open the doors, and swaggered inside to the building without breaking stride. He walked as if he owned the earth.

I followed because where else was I supposed to go?

x x x

The Doctor sauntered on down the halls with his _sonic screwdriver_ in the wedges of his fingers until he was at the end of the hall, looking into a vacuous space to his right. I was following slowly behind. Every step I made was slower than the last as I crept down the hallways that I had feared so much this morning. It was dark now and completely void of character and noise. It seemed so small and so... _not threatening_.

"I tracked the signal all the way back to your house. Why? What's so important about you?" He returned back to me. He always returned back to me. He looked at me like I was a puzzle just waiting to be put together.

I answered with a slight shrug. "Can't it just be a coincidence?"

"Nothing is ever just a coincidence." He responded rather coy all the sudden. "So. I'll ask again. What's so important about you?"

I was as confused as he was. I was a simple girl born in Blackpool and sent to live with strangers after my mother died. _What was so important about me_?

The Doctor disappeared behind a closet door in which I followed promptly afterwards. Inside, not much to my surprise, was a room full of sparkling gadgets and wires that extended towards the ceiling.

"What. Is that?" I spattered after seeing the room immediately. No surprise here, but that didn't make this setup any less confusing.

"It's how I've been tracking the Ortraxies."

Again. I had to ask: "The what?"

"The Ortraxies. They're the little blue shapeshifters you met."

"You say 'Ortraxies' and 'they' as if..." I felt my stomach flip and churn until I was nauseous. "Are there multiple?"

"Yes- well, no not here- in their own planet- in their own dimension. It's all..."

"Wibbly-wobbly..."

His eyes got really big then. He stared at me like he had just seen a ghost and it was terrifying. "What did you just say?"

"Nothing." I hurried to explain, but my tongue was choking on my own vocabulary. "I just... said a thing and then you looked- well, I don't know how you looked."

"The Ortraxy. He didn't take you. He could've, but he didn't. Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions you don't expect answers for, don't you?"

"I always find the answer, though, don't I?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't known you long enough to confirm that."

"Fair enough." Quiet then, but his voice raised to impossible heights almost immediately following. "Right then! Let's see where it's gone now!"

My head fell to the side as the Doctor whizzed about the station with his screwdriver at the ready. Pulling a metal box to his sight, the Doctor examined a televised reading of what and where this creature was and/or doing. It was all a bit weird to me... Not entirely sure how he pulled it off. "Oh. No..." His mien fell to extreme worry. "No. No. No. No." He looked afraid. "This is not good."

"What's not good?"

He didn't answer.

"Doctor!"

He was still shaking his head. "The Ortraxy. It's gone after Clara."

"Clara?" But he wasn't listening to me. "It searches-" He stopped. His face turned upward and he looked at me like I was the most obvious thing on the planet. "God- Yes! Yes! I get it now!" He was slapping at himself. Wandering and flapping about like a child on a sugar rush! "It goes for impossible things- things that aren't supposed to be here! But-" He looked at me, came at me instantly and stared down at me like I was even more mysterious than before. I crooked an eyebrow and watched him curiously. "But- that doesn't explain you... Why you? What's so special about you? I get Clara... But you. You're just a child. An ordinary child. Why did it come for you? You're not supposed to be here..." He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned over me in a second until the green light flicked away and he was staring at it, reading it. "Nothing. You're nothing."

"Thanks?"

"You're just a girl. But there's something not right here... You're an orphan from Blackpool. How'd your mother die?"

"How did you know she died?" I felt my heart beating against my chest. Fast and unsteady.

"You don't have a mother. What else could it be?"

"She could've given me up. It happened to my foster sister, Olivia. Her mom's a consultant now..." I thought about Olivia a lot. About how mother's could give up their children. I never really understand it. I don't think I ever would.

He didn't look convinced. "You don't make sense..."

"Neither do you." I pointed out.

He smiled. "I like you." His smile widened. "Come along, muppet! We've got a Clara to save!"

 _Muppet_? He called me muppet... If I was sticking around, he'd have to find a new name for me.

He smiled at me. He grinned so widely I thought his cheeks might pop right off his face. He had my hand in his again and off we were, back through the halls, and out towards the courtyard and towards... _Hold on_! We were in that? That box? I stopped again, my hand falling from his. He was inside, through the doors, and not waiting for me to gather my thoughts. "That's definitely _not_ possible!"

I was standing outside the blue box, staring up at the lighted lettering above: Police Public Call Box. Like the ones from the old movies. I walked around. I poked my head inside and I ran the other way. I looked around the back and then went the other way to make sure there wasn't a corridor leading the other way. There was nothing. There was the box and then the woods and the school and the street and the courtyard. Nothing but this box. So, I climbed inside and met the Doctor, who wore that same big goofy grin. "You've got a box... but-"

"Yeah!" He seemed far too excited about this.

"But... it's- it's bigger on the inside- I don't get it."

"It's a TARDIS which stands-"

"-which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space- Yeah! We covered that part." I waved him passed. He wasn't about to start another monologue now. "What I don't understand is how it fools us into thinking it's smaller on the outside."

He hummed. "Give it a guess."

"Another dimension?"

That smile returned. He was spinning around again. His coat waving about him. Levers and buttons pulsing through sounds through the air and the ship moved with the wind. It was a jolt and a wheeze and we landed somewhere probably so far away in only a matter of seconds. _I had to get myself one of these things_... Nothing is truly impossible.

* * *

Next time on _Doctor Who_...

"Miss Oswald?"

Clara, he called her. "Doctor, did you bring a nine-year-old student to help save the world?"

"Children are the best saviours."

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair, protesting those negative thoughts that were running through his head. The Ortraxy's dimension was sealed and the only way to open it was with a sacrifice. It's the Ortraxy way... but what if the Ortraxy way isn't the Doctor's way? I think I'd like to learn more of the Doctor's way...

My name is Emma Waldron and I'm going to help the Doctor exile the Ortraxy back into it's universe. Even if it costs me my life.


	3. Impossible Meets Impossible

So... You've all been introduced to Emma Waldron. She's a clever little nine-year-old... But hold on. Her secrets and her life are all about to be unravelled if you vow to follow along. I know that part one and part two weren't much, but I never like to give away the most interesting parts at the beginning of the story... something must be looked forward to.

Now without further ado... I present to you: _The Hidden Chapter in Clara Oswald's Timeline_! Series One, Part Three.

 **Disclaimer** : I do own any of the Whoverse characters nor do I have any association with the production.

* * *

 **PART THREE  
IMPOSSIBLE MEETS IMPOSSIBLE**

The TARDIS spun into the vortex until it wheezed into some spot far off from where we were before. I was clinging to the console, steps away from the Doctor, when he snapped his slender fingers and the doors flipped open to the outside world. The skies were still dark for no light flooded through. There were no stars in view, not with those unfamiliar London lights on the surface. The Doctor was out the door before I had even made it to the railing. I felt wobbly, like I had just stepped out of a rocking boat.

I followed the Doctor out those lit Police Box doors and found myself back in London Town, or an alleyway behind a bricked wall in London Town, a large building that towered all the way up to the moon. "What are we doing here?" I asked just as I splashed into a mud puddle just outside a one-side-to-open escape door. This was a housing complex.

"Come along, now." He popped open the door without a knob with only a single wave of his magical sonic screwdriver. He looked back at me with that same grin he wore all night and took my hand in his, gripping tightly, taking me through the solid door; it closed swiftly behind us. He dragged me up the emergency set off stairs until we were on floor three, using his sonic again to unlock the door.

We came to a plain red door marked with the number '11'. He knocked twice, smiling at me like a child with a secret when the door opened and we flooded inside. Inside Miss Oswald's flat. Because there she was, standing at the door with her toothbrush between her teeth. Her cheeks puckered outward, staring at the Doctor and then at me and then back at the Doctor. Her eyes exceedingly wide.

"Doctor?" She spoke with her mouth full. The Doctor was still smiling. "Did you drag one of my students out of bed in the middle of the night and bring them to my flat?"

It was only then that I looked down and realised that I was still dressed for bed. I had on a pair of matching jammies and my hair was all tied up in a loose ponytail. I regretted every minute of this now. I wasn't even wearing shoes, just a pair of winter socks in bright colours.

"Yes- Oh!" He looked frazzled then, looking at me and then at Clara, who looked more cross than I thought she could ever look. "It's not what it looks like. I swear to you."

Miss Oswald let out a big sigh and shoved aside so that the Doctor and I could enter, closing the door promptly behind us. "In the kitchen. Now." She waved him through the door to the kitchen and turned to me once he had disappeared. "Emma, go ahead and sit yourself down. He'll be back... " She turned her back, "and so will I." Miss Oswald disappeared after the Doctor with the toothbrush still on her person.

I followed the hall down the opposite direction, finding myself at the heart of Miss Oswald's flat. This was so weird... I sat down on the chair at the far-end of the room next to the window. I propped my feet up on the seat and knelt over the arm of the chair to stare out at the night sky. Still dark and empty. I could hear from from the sitting room. Miss Oswald was not quiet, no matter how much she tried to whisper.

"You dragged a nine-year-old here? Are you mad?" Her voice fell quiet for a sudden moment. "Doctor, we've talked about this!"

I could hear them moving about the kitchen. Neither were standing still. "Clara- this is very important- you have to listen-"

"You're mixing my work with my-" Her own voice stopped her this time.

"You're what?"

She back away from the question. "You can't bring my students along, Doctor. They're too little-"

"So?" He sounded out of breath. "Little is good! I like little! When they're little they're clever. Oh- very, very clever! They see things that we can't possibly-"

"She's nine!"

"She's adorable!" He sounded too excited, like he had just found a new pet. "Have you seen her? How can you turn her away?"

I smiled a bit, nonetheless.

Miss Oswald wasn't convinced. I could tell in the tone of her voice. "Doesn't matter, Doctor. What we do- this- is not an adventure meant for nine-year-olds! What we do is dangerous-"

 _What is exactly was it they were doing that was so dangerous and why was my school teacher part of it?_

And then he hushed her. I heard him hush her and all went quiet. For a minute. "Don't make me regret this." That was the last thing I heard her say before the sound of footsteps came sauntering into the room. I followed the sound with my head.

There he was, the Doctor, standing there with his hands on the corners of his bowtie, and smiling triumphantly. "Okay, Emma Waldron. Welcome to the gang-" His face changed instantly. He looked almost disappointed. "-oo! No... Not the gang. Must find a new name. Gang is _not_ cool."

"What about Miss Oswald?" I slid my feet from the chair and leaned over the edge of the seat.

The Doctor just waved his hands with no bother in his brain. "Don't worry about Clara. We've got an Ortraxy to banish, don't we?"

I was smiling, then. Finding his gaze with my own. Clara entered the room moments later; her appearance slightly tidied since when we first came through the door. She stood opposite of the Doctor with her arms crossed over her chest, leaning her side against the wall. "So, what's this about the Ortraxy?"

"Right- so the Ortraxy come for the impossible, they feed of possibility, which makes you-"

"-which makes me an all-you-can-eat buffet?" Miss Oswald finished for him.

"Why does it want you?" I asked suddenly, causing both of them to look at me instantaneously.

"The better question is," the Doctor moved his entire frame to face me, moving slowly back towards him. "why does it want _you_?"

"Me?"

" _Her_?" Miss Oswald was creeping in towards the room. "What do they want with a nine-year-old girl from London?"

"I'm not from London." But neither of them were listening to me now. Not that it would matter where I was from, anyways. I just opened my mouth and words came out.

"Don't know." The Doctor's voice was soft. "That's what we're trying to figure out."

" _We_?" Hers and my voice echoed together.

It was suddenly that there was a _thud_ outside Miss Oswald's door. We all turned to the noise. Our breath filled the air around us, stilled and haunted us until there was nothing left but our breathless silence. Bait waiting for the capture. The Doctor's hand reached out for mine slowly and quietly until it was clasped perfectly with his. "Time to run! Off we go!"

The Doctor dragged me through the flat and onto the opposite side, threw me into a room and shut the door, sealing it with his sonic screwdriver. "What good is this going to do? We're just going to shush and hide?" I huffed, fear starting to take over. I hadn't even noticed the room around us, decorated in fair rose colours and soft whites. It wasn't what I expected out of Miss Oswald's bedroom.

Miss Oswald tore the sheets from her bed and started fastening them together like a rope. "Come on, then, it'll go faster if you help!"

"You don't need to shout..." I pinched my nose, but obeyed her nonetheless. Following her pattern, I started tying together the sheets and all the blankets I could find while Miss Oswald threw open her bedroom window and started to slid the fashioned rope down the side of the building.

"All right. Emma, follow me."

The Doctor pried himself from the door, now heaving with the thudding of a monster on the other side. He tied the rope to the bedpost and tugged on it before waving me down the fabric. Miss Oswald was all ready at the bottom of the rope and waiting for me, her arms extended as I shimmied down the fabric, losing grip towards the end and falling directly into Miss Oswald's hold. She gasped under me, surprised at my sudden loss of control, and the two of us collapsed onto the cemented ground below.

"It's time like these I wish I was taller..." She groaned, her hands gripping my shoulders as she slowly hoisted my upwards and off her person.

"Oi!" The Doctor's voice rang through. "What are you two doing laying around for? Now is not the time. Run. Run!"

The Doctor was standing over us suddenly and instantly; I hadn't even seen him scramble down the rope, but there he was, at the bottom of the building and the fabric was torn down the middle just above the second window. Wasn't sure if that was because of me or him.

We were running. Running again. We did a lot of running. Lots of running for only a few hours in one night. But the Doctor was clever. He ran with purpose. He ran all the way to the south end of the street when it started to rain. It was pouring now. _Fantastic_. "Hurry now! Clara, take this!" He threw his sonic screwdriver towards her; she caught it perfectly and they split around a building at the end of the street. I had two options: follow the Doctor or follow Miss Oswald. I had meant to follow the Doctor, but my heart dragged me towards Miss Oswald. She seemed like the less dangerous choice.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked her. The running ceased and there we stood at the centre of the an abandoned building. In the cavern of a cemented basement was a metal contraption that strung from the floor to the ceiling; a larger version of the one that I had seen in the storage closet earlier. Except this one was emitting a hazelled purple light from it's tip. The metal spun and elicited a clicking noise around the room.

"You stay put."

"But I want to help-"

She spun around real fast that she could've given me whiplash. "If anything happens to you-"

"I can take care of myself!" I insisted.

"I'm sure you can, but this isn't like remembering to brush your teeth and pick up your own clothes!"

"Looks like I've got my work cut out for me, then..." I quirked an eyebrow and brushed right past her and into the room with stupid pride, stupid pride because I had no idea what I was walking into or what I would do next. I spun 'round to face the contraception. But that view of purple was quickly stained in black.

"Emma!"

I should've stayed put because hopping from the ceiling was the same beast that I had seen earlier, now standing above me. It landed just there, right in front of me, and knocked me to the floor, growling victoriously. I screamed. I definitely screamed. And I think so did Miss Oswald. Things were so muffled. Everything was so dark.

She was there in a instinct. Buzzing swished and pierced through the air, pushing the creature back against the floor. The buzzing tingled it's ear; made it collapse with discomfort. The Doctor burst through the room, then, with a satellite strapped to his back and a mirror tied to his forehead. _Good God, what have I gotten myself into_?

I scrambled back to my feet. The ground grumbled at my feet and the Doctor was backing the creature into the wall. His voice booming in a wild roar. "Doctor!" He was thrown his metal wand and the buzzing filled my auditoriums again, drumming against the beating of the earth. The Ortraxy threw itself forward, roaring at the Doctor with expelled horror.

In a singular moment the satellite fell from his person and his screwdriver was knocked across the room. The Doctor was tossed to the ground and all of his 'weapons' were thrown from protection. I had one second, one second where the Ortraxy was distracted and I lunged for the screwdriver. Catching in my palm as I dived towards the floor. "Doctor!" I shouted, throwing the sonic in his direction. He caught it in midair, pointed it at the alien and light beamed up from the cement, enthralling the room in a sweet verdant.

It all went very fast. The satellite and the purple light. It enveloped the monster and it disappeared into the light with glimmers of gold sparking out all around it. Then it vanished. As if it was never there at all.

Miss Oswald scurried across the floor, falling to her knees just in front of me, snatching my arms and yanking me up to my erected height. "What did I tell you?" Miss Oswald was yelling, panicked I think. She didn't release the grip she had on my biceps. "I told you to stay put!"

I pushed away weakly, brushed off my clothing and stared back at her. "I know what you said. I didn't listen. Worked, didn't it?"

Her eyes widened. Her nose flared and her lips pursed in disbelief. But she didn't reach for me again.

The Doctor looked confused; his mind racing back and forth with contemplation and he watched the both us, thinking and wandering and planning. "Clara's right. You did a very reckless thing." He found my gaze. "But! Good things from recklessness. Clara ought to know." He looked at her cheekily. "Good going, Emma Waldron!" The Doctor trotted over to Miss Oswald and put an arm around her shoulder. "What do you think, Clara? She might come in handy-"

"Handy?" She pulled away from his embrace. "You want to take a nine-year-old with us to...?"

"Anywhere! Everywhere!"

"Doctor?" She spoke through gritted teeth. "A word." She took him by the bowtie and spun him around so their backs were facing me. Again, they were not very quiet. "You can't take a child on the TARDIS. She'll get hurt- or worse..."

He hushed her, glancing back at me. "Not with us around-"

"No, exactly with us around..."

He hushed her again. "There's something else. Something I can't quite put my hands on-"

"If I can." I finally interrupted. "I may be only nine, but I can take care of myself. I'm nine, but I'm not stupid. I can stay out of trouble. I promise." I wasn't really sure that was a promise I could keep, but I didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

Miss Oswald and the Doctor looked at each other and for a moment it looked like they might concede. "One trip. Do you understand? Then we bring her back, understood?" She was talking to the Doctor.

He smiled. "One trip. Let's make it a good one, eh?"

x x x

"Doctor! I don't understand-"

"Of coarse not- You're not supposed to!"

He had left her stunned at the heart of the vault. Tears still trickling down her cheeks, Clara turned to find that the Doctor was all ready out of the room. His hands clutching that locket that he exposed as _hers_.

"What memories?" She was screaming down the corridor, but the Doctor was out of reach. _Her_ locket was still out of her hands. _Hers_. Clara shuffled on heeled boots out of the room after him. He wandered away from the vault, past the console entrance, and to the other corridor, where Clara's room was. Guess where the Doctor went... "Oi! Doctor! What are you doing?"

"Something came through- what are you not telling me?" He was cross then. He looked at her with anger brewing in his sad, sad hazel eyes.

"Nothing." She was shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about- Doctor!" _What was he prattling on about_?

His hand slipped under her pillow at the end of the room. Instinctually, like he knew something would be there, he pulled from within a sheet of paper, coloured with blues and reds and greens and yellows. "Oh Clara. Clara-Clara-Clara-Clara... Even when the world takes it all away you still manage to drag it all back-"

"What is that? I don't even recognise it."

Clara went to reach for the paper, but the Doctor held it high out of her reach- not much of a challenge for him to accomplish. "This, Clara, is the last thing that Emma ever gave to you."

She was crying again. But she didn't know what for. "Emma? Emma who?"

Now it was the Doctor who shed the tear. "Oh Clara... Clara, I am so so sorry, but I have failed you."

"Doctor, I still don't understand..."

The Doctor lowered his hand with the paper. It was within her reach, but she didn't take her chance. She didn't look at the paper. Suddenly, it felt forbidden. She was too busy watching him. The Doctor had so many secrets. So many secrets that Clara would never live long enough to hear them all. Perhaps none of them at all. She'd never know. "Can I see it?"

His gaze fell to the sheet of paper now crumbled in his fist and he reluctantly released into Clara's open palm. His eyes never meeting hers, not once, though hers were locked on him, unyielding. When Clara turned over the sheet of paper it was nothing more than a child's drawing... of her and a little girl and the Doctor. She could only tell it was the Doctor because he was the only stick figure with a bowtie. She shook her head disbelieving, "You're worked up over a children's drawing?"

"Yes. Well- No- And yes... It's all very complicated. But this- this drawing isn't supposed to exist! You're not supposed to remember- any of this!" The Doctor did this thing with his hands when he was trying to explain something. It never did him any good. He just looked- silly.

"Remember what?" He never answered. "Doctor!"

"You told me to... I am so so sorry, Clara."

"I told you to what?"

"To take her away?"

"Take who away?"

" _Your daughter_." It was the way the Doctor spoke, slow and meticulous. Like every word was so very important. They usually were. Not usually. Always. "You asked me to take her away..."

She hadn't stopped crying. She was shaking now. "My what?" Her voice trembled, her hands turned clammy and the paper ripped in her grip. "Doctor... please- slow down! and talk to me! Why would I ask you to take- I'm sorry, _my what_?"

"Because you couldn't bear it..."

"Bear what?"

"I'm sorry, but it's already too late." The Doctor was close, standing over her with eyes batting from side-to-side. "This is gonna hurt." The Doctor had his hands around her face, holding her tight, when he banged his forehead against her. Flashes ran through her head, images of planets she hadn't seen before, colours she didn't even know had existed, and people she'd never met.

"Oi! That hurt!" Clara was holding her palm against her forehead as the headache persisted. And then she was out. Her world was black and all consciousness abandoned her. Sleep was the only thing that surrounded her now. Peaceful sleep.

* * *

Next time on _Doctor Who_...

"Welcome to _The Rings of Akhaten_!"

I was standing on another planet. A proper planet with floors of red and streets of gold cobble. The Doctor took Clara here on her first official trip with him, too. It's been two hundred years since they've come here and things were not for the better...

The planet has been invaded and the locals are dying. It's lost it's beauty; the Queen is a slave and she's a child- just like me...

"Can't we just go back in time and fix it?"

"Can't. Not now that we've seen it... like this."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to save the planet!"


End file.
